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The South Arkansas Substance Abuse Primary Program developed the Smarter Sentencing Pilot Program (SSPP) to offer innovative pre-trial and pre-sentencing sanctions and services for DWI offenders. SSPP aims to reduce felony convictions, increase public safety, and reduce Arkansas Department of Corrections spending by using effective evidence-based sentencing practices for nonviolent felony-level offenders.

The SSPP focuses on criminogenic risk and need factors with an assessment process that examines participants’ criminal history, education, employment history, finances, family and social support, environment, substance abuse and mental health, peer associations, and criminal attitudes and behavioral patterns. The offender is placed in one of three tiers of programming based on assessment outcomes. These tiers vary based on treatment approaches, from participation in a peer-to-peer accountability group with periodic random drug and alcohol testing to a more intensive outpatient treatment program with 24/7 drug and alcohol monitoring.

Empirical evidence shows that community-based programs that target criminogenic risk and needs, incorporate effective classification strategies, and hire and retain efficient staff to administer programs can increase successful outcomes of reducing recidivism by as much as 80 percent.

For details on this program, please contact Jaime Lotter, Director of Government Relations & Traffic Safety at The Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility.

With our Judicial Education Advisory Committee, The Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility has developed a compilation of promising programs across the nation for dealing with DWI offenders in the criminal justice community. It is our hope that by sharing these programs with stakeholders in the criminal justice field that new, innovative programs can be developed in every state to deal more comprehensively with DWI offenders.

Please contact Jaime Lotter if you know of any other programs that should be included in this compilation.